by scandalous articles and all irreverent demeanour to seeke to drive her out of My Kingdomes lest by the influence of her example eminent for love as a Wife and Loyalty as a Subject she should have converted to or retayned in their love and Loyalty all those whom they had a purpose to pervert The lesse I may be blest with her company the more I will retire to God and My owne Heart whence no malice can banish Her My enemies may envy but they can never deprive Me of the enjoyment of her vertues while I enjoy My self Thou O Lord whose Iustice at present sees fit to scatter us let thy mercâ—â— in thy due time reunite us on earth if it be thy will however bring us both at last to thy heavenly Kingdome Preserve us from the hands of our despitefull and deadly enemies and prepare us by our sufferings for thy presence Though we differ in some things as to Religion which is my greatest temporall infelicity yet Lord give and accept the sincerity of our affections which desire to seek to find to embrace every Truth of thine Let both our Hearts agree in the love of thy selfe and Christ crucified for us Teach us both what thou wouldst have us to know in order to thy glory our publique relations and our soules eternall good and make us carefull to doe what good we know Let neither Ignorance of what is necessary to be knowne nor unbelief or disobedience to what we know be our misery or our wilfull default Let not this great Scandall of those my Subjects which professe the same Religion with me be any hindrance to her love of any Truth thou wouldst have her to learne nor any hardning of her in any errour thou wouldst have cleared to her Let mine and other mens constancy be an Antidote against the poyson of their example Let the Truth of that Religion I professe be represented to her Iudgment with all the beauties of Humility Loyaltâ—â— Charity and Peaceablenesse which are the proper fruits and ornaments of it Not in the odious disguises of Levity Schisme Heresie Novelty Cruelty and Disloyalty which some mens practises have lately put upon it Let her see thy sacred and saving Truths as Thine that she may believe love and obey them as Thine cleared from all rust and drosse of humane mixtures That in the glasse of thy Truth she may see thee in those mercies which thou hast offered to us in thy Sonne Iesus Christ our onely Saviour and serve thee in all those Holy duties which most agree with his holy doctrine and most imitable example The experience we have of the vanity and uncertainty of all humane Glory and greatnesse in our scatterings and Eclypses let it make us both so much â—he more ambitious to be invested in those durable honours and perfections which are onely to be found in thy self and obtained through Iesus Christ. 8. Vpon His Majesties repulse at Hull and the fates of the Hothams MY repulse at Hull seemed at the first view an act of so rude disloyalty that My greatest enemies had scarce confidence enough to abeâ—t or owne it It was the first overt Essay to be made how patiently I could beare the Losse of My Kingdomes God knows it affected me more with shame and sorrow for others then with anger for My selfe nor did the affront done to Me trouble Me so much as their sinne which admitted no colour oâ— excuse I was resolved how to beare this and much more with patience But I foresaw they could hardly conteine themselves within the compasse of this one unworthy act who had effrontery enough to commit or countenance it This was but the hand of that cloud which was â—oone after to overspread the whole Kingdome and cast all into disorder and darknesse For t is among the wicked Maximes of bold and disloyall undertakers That bad actions must alwayes be seconded with worse and rather not be begun then not carried on for they think the retreat more dangerous then the assault and hate repentance more then perseverance in a Fault This gave Me to see clearly through all the pious disguises and soft palliations of some men whose words were sometime smoother then oyle but now I saw they would prove very Swords Against which I having as yet no defence but that of a good Conscience thought it My best policy with patience to bear what I could not remedy And in this I thank God I had the better of Hotham that no disdain or emotion of passion transported Me by the indignity of his carriage to doe or say any thing unbeseeming My self or unsutable to that temper which in greatest injuries I think best becomes a Christian as comming nearest to the great example of Christ. And indeed I desire alwaies more to remember I am a Christian then a King for what the Majesty of one might justly abhor the Charity of the other is willing to bear what the height of a King tempteth to revenge the humility of a Christian teacheth to forgive Keeping in compasse all those impotent passions whose excesse injures a man more then his greatest enemies can for these give their malice a full impression on our souls which otherwaies cannot reach very far nor doe us much hurt I cannot but observe how God not long after so pleaded and avenged My cause in the eye of the world that the most wilfully blind cannot avoid the displeasure to see it with some remorse and fear to own it as a notable stroke and prediction of divine vengeance For Sir Iohn Hotham unreproached unthreatned uncursed by any language or secret imprecation of Mine onely blasted with the conscience of his owne wickednesse and falling from one inconstancy to another not long after paies his owne and his eldest Sons heads as forfeitures of their disloyalty to those men from whom surely he might have expected another reward then thus to divide their heads from their bodies whose hearts with them were divided from their KING Nor is it strange that they who imployed them at first in so high a service and so successfull to them should not find mercy enough to forgive Him who had so much premerited of them For Apostacy unto Loyalty some men account the most unpardonable sinne Nor did a solitary vengeance serve the turne the cutting off one head in a Family is not enough to expiate the affront done to the head of the CoÌ„mon-weale The eldest Son must be involved in the punishment as he was infected with the sinne of the Father against the Father of his Country Root and branch God cuts off in one day These observations are obvious to every fancy God knows I was so farre from rejoycing in the Hotham's ruine though it were such as was able to give the greaâ—est thirst for revenge a full drought being executed by them who first employed him against Me that I so farre pitied him as I thought he at first acted more against the light
of his Conscience then I hope many other men doe in the same Cause For he was never thought to be of that superstitious sowrenesse which some men pretend to in matters of Religion which so darkens their judgment that they cannot see any thing of Sinne and Rebellion in those meanes they use with intents to reforme to their Models of what they call Religion who think all is gold of piety which doth but glister with a shew of Zeale and fervency Sir Iohn Hotham was I think a man of another temper and so most liable to those downright temptations of ambition which have no cloake or cheat of Religion to impose upon themselves or others That which makes me more pity him is that after he began to have some inclinations towards a repentance for his sinne and reparation of his duty to Me He should be so unhappy as to fall into the hands of their Justice and not My Mercy who could as willingly have forgiven him as he could have asked that favour of Me. For I think clemency a debt which we ought to pay to those that crave it when we have cause to believe they would not after abuse it since God himself suffer us not to pay any thing for his mercy but onely prayers and praises Poor Gentleman he is now become a noteable monument of unprosperous disloyalty teaching the world by so sad and unfortunate a spectacle that the rude carriage of a Subject towards his Soveraigne carries alwaies its own vengeance as an unseperable shadow with it and those oft prove the most fatall and implacable Executioners of it who were the first Imployers in the service After-times will dispute it whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-hill though 't is certain that no punishment so stains a mans Honour as wilfull preparations of unworthy actions which besides the conscience of the sinne brands with most indelible characters of infamy the name and memory to posterity who not engaged in the Factions of the times have the most impartiall reflections on the actions But thou O Lord who hast in so remarkable a way avenged thy Servant suffer me not to take any secret pleasure in it for his death hath satisfied the injury he did to me so let me not by it gratifie any passion in me lest I make thy vengeance to be mine and consider the affront against me more than the sin against thee Thou indeed without any desire or endeavour of mine hast made his mischief to returne on his owne head and his violent dealing to come down on his owne pate Thou hast pleaded my cause even before the sonnes of men and taken the matter into thine own hands that men may know it was thy work and see that thou Lord hast done it I do not I dare not say so let mine enemies perish O Lord yea Lord rather give them repentance pardon and impunity if it be thy blessed will Let not thy justice prevent the objects and opportunities of my mercy yea let them live and amend who have most offended me in so high a nature that I may have those to forgive who beare most proportion in their offences to those trespasses against thy majesty which I hope thy mercy hath forgiven me Lord lay not their sins who yet live to their charge for condemnation but to their consciences for amendment Let the lighting of this thunderbolt which hath been so severe a punishment to one be a terrour to all Discover to them their sinne who know not they have done amisse and scare theâ— from their sinne that sinne of malicious wickednesse That preventing thy judgments by their true repentance they may escape the strokes of â—â—â—ne eternall vengeance And doe thou O Lord establish the Throâ—e of thy servant in mercy and truth meeting â—â—â—â—â—gether let my Crowne ever flourish in rigâ—â—â—â—ousnesse and peace kissing each other Heare my prayer O Lord who hast taught us to pray for to doe good to and to love our enemies for thy sake who hast prevented us with offertures of thy love even when we were thine enemies and hast sent thy Sonne Iesus Christ to die for us when we were disposed to crucifie him 9. Vpon the listing and raising Armies against the KING I Find that I am at the same point and posture I was when they forced Me to leave White-hall what Tumults could not doe an Army must which is but Tumults lifted and enrolled to a better order but as bad an end My recesse hath given them confidence that I may be conquered And so I easily may as to any outward strength which God knowes is little or none at all But I have a Soule invincible through Gods grace enabling Me here I am sure to be Conquerour if God will give Me such a measure of Constancy as to feare him more than man and to love the inward peace of My Conscience before any outward tranquillity And must I be opposed with force because they have not reason wherewith to convince me O my Soule be of good courage they confesse their knowne weaknesse as to truth and Justice who chose rather to contend by Armies than by Arguments Is this the reward and thanks that I am to receive for those many Acts of Grace I have lately passed and for those many Indignities I have endured Is there no way left to make Me a glorious KING but by My sufferings It is a hard and disputable choice for a King that loves his People and desires their love either to kill his owne Subjects or to be killed by them Are the hazards and miseries of Civil War in the bowels of My most flourishing Kingdome the fruits I must now reap after 17 years living and reigning among them with such a measuâ—e of Justice Peace Plenty and Religion as all Nations about either admired or envied notwithstanding some miscarriages in Government which might escape rather through ill counsell of some men driving on their private ends or the peevishnesse of others envying the publique should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State then any propensity I hope of my self either to injuriousness or oppression Whose innocent bloud during My Reigne have I shed to satisfie My lust anger or covetousnesse what Widowes or Orphans tears can witnesse against me the just cry of which must now be avenged with My owne bloud For the hazards of Warre are equall nor doth the Cannon know any respect of Persons In vaine is My Person excepted by a Parenthesis of words when so many hands are armed against Me with Swords God knowes how much I have studied to see what Ground of Justice is alledged for this Warre against Me that so I might by giving just satisfaction either prevent or soone end so unnaturall a motion which to many men seemes rather the productions of a surfeit of peace and wantonnesse of mindes or of private discontents Ambition and Faction which easily find or make causes of
attend the cry and hollow of those Men who hunt after Factious and private Designes to the ruine of Church and State Did My judgment tell Me that the Propositions sent to Me were the Results of the Major part of their Votes who exercise their freedome as well as they have a right to sit in Parliament I should then suspect My own judgment for not speedily and fully concurring with every one of them For I have charity enough to think there are wise men among them and humility to think that as in some things I may want so 't is fit I should use their advise which is the end for which I called them to a Parliament But yet I cannot allow their wisdome such a compleatnesse and inerrability as to exclude My self since none of them hath that part to Act that Trust to discharge nor that Estate and Honour to preserve as My selfe without whose Reason concurrent with theirs as the Suns influence is necessary in all natures productions they cannot beget or bring forth any one compleat and authoritative Act of publique wisdome which makes the Lawes But the nnreasonablenesse of some Propositions is not more evident to Me than this is That they are not the joynt and free desires of those in their Major number who are of right to Sit and Vote in Parliament For many of them savour very strong of that old leaven of Innovations masked under the name of Reformation which in My two last famous Predecessours daies heaved at and sometime threatned both Prince and Parliaments But I am sure was never wont so far to infect the whole masse of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdome however it dispersed among the Vulgar Nor was it likely so suddenly to taynt the Major part of both Houses as that they should unanimously desire and affect so enormous and dangerous innovations in Church and State contrary to their former education practise and judgement Not that I am ignorant how the choice of many Members was carried by much faction in the Countries some thirsting after nothing more than a passionate revenge of what ever displeasure they had conceived against me my Court or the Clergy But all Reason bids me impute these sudden and vast desires of change to those few who armed themselves with the many-headed and many-handed Tumults No lesse doth Reason Honour and Safety both of Church and State command me to chew such morsels before I let them downe If the straitnesse of my Conscience will not give me leave to swallow down such Camels as others doe of Sacriledge and injustice both to God and man they have no more cause to quarrell with me than for this that my throat is not so wide as theirs Yet by Gods help I am resolved That nothing of passion or peevishnesse or list to contradict or vanity to shew my negative power shall have any byas upon my judgment to make me gratifie my will by denying any thing which my Reason and Conscience commands me not Nor on the other side will I consent to more than Reason Justice Honour and Religion perswade me to be for Gods glory the Churches good my Peoples welfare and my owne peace I will study to satisfie my Parliament and my People but I will never for feare or flattery gratifie any Faction how potent soever for this were to nourish the disease oppresse the body Although many mens loyalty and prudence are terrified from giving me that free and faithfull counsell which they are able and willing to impart and I may want yet none can hinder me from craving of the counsell of that mighty Counsellour who can both suggest what is best and incline my heart stedfastly to follow it O thou first and eternall Reason whose wisdome is fortified with omnipotency furnish thy Servant first with cleare discoveries of Truth Reason and Iustice in My Understanding then so confirme My will and resolution to adhere to them that no terrours injuries or oppressions of my Enemies may ever inforce me against those rules which thou by them hast planted in My Conscience Thou never madest me a King that I should be lesse than a Man and not dare to say Yea or Nay as I see cause which freedome is not denied to the meanest creature that hath the use of Reason and liberty of speech Shall that be blameable in Me which is commendable veracity and constancy in othersâ— Thou seest O Lord with what partiality and injustice they deny that freedome to Me their KING which Thou hast given to all â—en and which Themselves pertinaciously challenge to themselves while they are so tender of the least breach of their priviledges To Thee I make my supplication who canst guide us by an unerring rule through thy perplexed Labyrinths of our owne thoughts and other mens proposalls which I have some cause to suspect are purposely cast as snares that by My granting or denying them I might be more entangled in those difficulties wherewith they lie in wait to afflict Me. O Lord make thy way plaine before Me. Let not My owne sinfull passions cloud or divert thy sacred suggestions Let thy glory be my end thy word my rule and then thy will be done I cannot please all I care not to please some men If I may be happy to please thee I need not feare whom I displease Thou that makest the wisdome of the world foolishnesse and takest in their owne devices such as are wise in their owne conceits make me wise by thy Truth for thy honour my Kingdoms generall good and my owne soules salvation and I shall not much regard the worlds opinion or diminution of me The lesse wisdome they are willing to impute to me the more they shall be convinced of thy wisdome directing me while I deny nothing fit to be granted out of crosnesse or humour nor grant any thing which is to be denied out of any feare or flattery of men Suffer me not to be guilty or unhappy by willing or inconsiderate advancing any mens designes which are injurious to the publique good while I confirme them by my consent Nor let me be any occasion to hinder or defraud the publique of what is best by any morose or perverse dâ—ssentings Make me so humbly charitable as to follow their advise when it appeares to be for the publâ—que good of whose affections to me I have yet but few evidences to assure Me. Thou canst as well blesse honest errours as blast fraudulent counsells Since we must give an account of every evill and idle word in private at thy Tribunall Lord make me carefull of those solemne Declarations of my mind which are like to have the greatest influence upon the Publique either for woe or weale The lesse others conâ—ider what they aske make me the more solicitous what I answer Though Mine owne and My Peoples pressures are grievous and peace would be very pleasing yet Lord never suffer Me to avoid the one or purchase the other
with the least expense or wast of my Conscience whereof thou O Lord onely art deservedly more Master than My self 12. Vpon the Rebellion and troubles in Ireland THe Commotions in Ireland were so sudden and so violent that it was hard at first either to discerne the rise or apply a remedy to that precipitant Rebellion Indeed that sea of bloud which hath there been cruelly and barbarously shed is enough to drowne any man in eternall both infamy and misery whom God shall find the malicious Authour or Instigator of its effusion It fell out as a most unhappy advantage to some mens malice against me that when they had impudence enough to lay any thing to my charge this bloudy opportunity should be offered them with which I must be aspersed Although there was nothing which could be more adhorred to me being so full of sin against God disloyalty to my selfe and destructive to my Subjects Some men took it very ill not to be believed when they affirmed that what the Irish Rebels did was done with my privity at least if not by my Commission But these knew too well that it is no news for some of my Subjects to fight not onely without my Commission but against my Command and Person too yet all the while to pretend they fight by my Authority and for my Safety I would to God the Irish had nothing to alledge for their imitation against those whose blame must needs be the greater by how much Protestant Principles are more against all Rebellion against Princes then those of Papists Nor will the goodnesse of mens intentions excuse the scandall and contagion of their Examples But who ever faile of their Duty toward me I must bear the blame this Honour my Enemies have alwaies done me to think moderate injuries not proportionate to me nor competent trialls either of my patience under them or my pardon of them Therefore with exquisite malice they have mixed the gall and vinegar of falsity and contempt with the cup of my Affliction Charging me not only with untruths but such as wherein I have the greatest share of losse and dishonour by what is committed whereby in all Policy Reason and Religion having least cause to give the least consent and most grounds of utter deâ—estation I might be represented by them to the world the more inhumane and barbarous Like some Cyclopick monster whom nothing will serve to eat and drink but the flesh and blood of my own Subjects in whose common welfare my interest lies as much as some mens doth in their perturbations who think they cannot doe well but in evill times nor so cunningly as in laying the odium of those sad events on others wherewith themselves are most pleased and whereof they have been not the least occasion And certainly t is thought by many wise men that the preposterous rigour and unreasonable severity which some men carried before them in England was not the least incentive that kindled and blew up into those horrid flames the sparkes of discontent which wanted not pre-disposed fewell for Rebellion in Ireland where despaire being added to their former discontents and the feares of utter extirpation to their wonted oppressions it was easie to provoke to an open Rebellion a people prone enough to break out to all exorbitant violence both by some Principles of their Religion and the naturall desires of liberty both to exempt themselves from their present restraints and to prevent those after rigours wherewith they saw themselves apparently threatned by the covetous zeal and uncharitable fury of some men who think it a great Argument of the truth of their Religion to endure no other but their own God knowes as I can with Truth wash my hands in Innocency as to any guilt in that Rebellion so I might wash them in my Teares as to the sad apprehensions I had to see it spread so farre and make such waste And this in a time when distraâ—â—ions and jealousies here in England made most men rather intent to their own safety or designes they were driving then to the relief of those who were every day inhumanely butchered in Ireland Whose teares and bloud might if nothing else have quenched or at least for a time repressed and smothered those sparks of Civill dissentions and Jealousies which in England some men most industriously scattered I would to God no man had been lesse affected with Irelands sad estate then my self I offered to goe my self in Person upon that expedition But some men were either afraid I should have any one Kingdome quieted or loath they were to shoot at any mark here lesse then my self or that any should have the glory of my destruction but themselves Had my many offers been accepted I am confident neither the ruine had been so great nor the calamity so long nor the remedy so desperate So that next to the sin of those who began that Rebellion theirs musts needs be who either hindred the speedy suppressing of it by Domestick dissentions or diverted the Aides or exasperated the Rebells to the most desperate resolutions and actions by threatning all extremities not only to the known heads and chief incendiaries but even to the whole community of that Nation Resolving to destroy Root and Branch men women and children without any regard to those usuall pleas for mercy which Conquerours not wholly barbarous are wont to hear from their own breasts in behalf of those whose oppressive faces rather then their malice engaged them or whose imbecility for Sex and Age was such as they could neither lift up a hand against them nor distinguish between their right hand and their left Which preposterous and I think un-evangelicall Zeal is too like that of the rebuked Disciples who would goe no lower in their revenge then to call for fire from Heaven upon whole Cities for the repulse or neglect of a few or like that of Iacobs sons which the Father both blamed and cursed chusing rather to use all extremites which might drive men to desperate obstinacy then to apply moderate remedies such as might punish some with exemplary Justice yet disarme others with tenders of mercy upon their submission and our protection of them from the fury of those who would soon drown them if they refused to swim down the popular stream with them But some kind of Zeale counts all mercifull moderation luke-warmnesse and had rather be cruell then counted cold and is not seldome more greedy to kill the Bear for his skin then for any harme he hath done The confiscation of mens estates being more beneficiall then the charity of saving their lives or reforming their Errours When all proportionable succours of the poor Protestants in Ireland who were daily massacred and overborne with numbers of now desperate Enemies was diverted and obstructed here I was earnestly entreated and generally advised by the chief of the Protestant party there to get them some respite and breathing by a cessation without which
wherein they doe not onely not consider their sin and danger but glory in their zealous adventures while I am rendred to them so fit to be destroyed that many are ambitious to merit the name of My Destroyers Imagining they then feare God most when they least honour their King I thanke God I never found but My pity was above My anger noâ— have My passions ever so prevailed against Me as to exclude My most compassionate prayers for them whom devout errours more than their own malice have betrayed to a most religious Rebellion I had the Charity to interpret that most part of My Subjects fought against My â—upposed Errours not My Person and intended to mend Me not to end Me And I hope that God pardoning their Errours hath so farre accepted and answered their good intentions that as he hath yet preserved Me so he hath by these afflictions prepared Me both to doe him better service and My people more good than hitherto I have done I doe not more willingly forgive their seductions which occasioned their loyall injuries then I am ambitious by all Princely merits to redeem them from their unjust suspicions and reward them for their good intentions I am too conscious to My own Affections toward the generality of My people to suspect theirs to Me nor shall the malice of My Enemies ever be able to deprive Me of the comfort which that confidence gives Me I shall never gratifie the spightfulnesse of a few with any sinister thoughts of all their Allegiance whom pious frauds have seduced The worst some mens ambition can do shall never perswade Me to make so bad interpretations of most of My Subjects actions who possibly may be Erroneous but not Hereticall in point of Loyalty The sense of the Injuries done to My Subjects is as sharp as those done to My self our welfares being inseparable in this only they suffer more then My self that they are animated by some seducers to injure at once both themselves and Me. For this is not enough to the malice of My Enemies that I be afflicted but it must be done by such instruments that My afflictions grieve Me not more then this doth that I am afflicted by those whose prosperity I earnestly desire and whose seduction I heartily deplore If they had been My open and forraigne Enemies I could have borne it but they must be My own Subjects who are next to My Children dear to Me And for the restoring of whose tranquillity I could willingly be the Ionah If I did not evidently foresee that by the divided Interests of their and Mine Enemies as by contrary winds the storm of their miseries would be rather encreased then allayed I had rather prevent My peoples ruine then Rule over them nor am I so ambitious of that Dominion which is but My Right as of their happinesse if it could expiate or countervail such a way of obtaining it by the highest injuries of Subjects committed against their Soveraign Yet I had rather suffer all the miseries of life and die many deaths then shamefully to desert or dishonourably to betray My own just Rights and Soveraignty thereby to gratifie the ambition or justifie the malice of My Enemies between whose malice other mens mistakes I put as great a difference as between an ordinary Ague and the Plague or the Itch of Novelty and the Leprosie of Disloyalty As Liars need have good memories so Malicious persons need good inventions that their calumnies may fit every mans fancy and what their reproaches want of truth they may make up with number and shew My patience I thank God will better serve Me to bear and My charity to forgive then My leisure to answer the many false Aspersions which some men have cast upon Me. Did I not more consider My Subjects Satisfaction then My own Vindication I should never have given the malice of some men that pleasure as to see Me take notice of or remember what they say or object I would leave the Authors to be punished by their own evill manners and seared Consciences which will I believe in a shorter time then they be aware of both confute and revenge all those black and false Scandalls which they have cast on Me And make the world see there is as little truth in them as there was little worth in the broaching of them or Civility I need not say Loyalty in the not-suppressing of them whose credit and reputation even with the people shall ere long be quite blasted by the breath of that same fornace of popular obloquy and detraction which they have studied to heat and inflame to the highest degree of infamy and wherein they have sought to cast and consume My Name and Honour First nothing gave Me more cause to suspect and search My own Innoceâ—â—y then when I observed so many forward to engage against Me who had made great professions of singular piety For this gave to vulgar mindes so bad a reflection upon Me and My Cause as if it had been impossible to adhere to Me and not withall part from God to think or speak well of Me and not to Blaspheme him so many were perswaded that these two were utterly inconsistent to be at once Loyall to Me and truly Religious toward God Not but that I had I thank god many with Me which were both Learned and Religious much above that ordinary size and that vulgar proportion wherein some men glory so much who were so well satisfied in the cause of My sufferings that they chose rather to suffer with Me then forsake Me. Nor is it strange that so religious Pretensions as were used against Me should be to many well-minded men a great temptation to oppose Me Especially being urged by such popular Preachers as think it no sin to lie for God and what they please to call Gods Cause cursing all that will not curse with them looking so much at and crying up the goodnesse of the end propounded that they consider not the lawfulnesse of the means used nor the depth of the mischeif chiefly plotted and intenâ—ed The weakness of these mens judgments must be made up by their clamours and activity It was a great part of some mens Religion to scandalize Me and Mine they thought theirs could not be true if they cried not downe Mine as false I thank God I have had more triall of his grace as to the constancy of My Religion in the Protestant profession of the Church of England both abroad and at home than ever they are like to have Nor doe I know any exception I am so liable to in their opinion as too great a fixednesse in that Religion whose judicious and solid grounds both from Scripture and Antiquity will not give My Conscience leave to approve or consent to those many dangerous and divided Innovations which the bold Ignorance of some men would needs obtrude upon Me and My People Contrary to those well tried foundations both of Truth and Order
the Common-wealth since my Subjects can hardly be happy if I be miserable or enjoy their peace and liberties while I am oppressed The world may see how soon mens design like Absoloms is by enormous actions to widen differences and exasperate all sides to such distances as may make all reconciliation desperate Yet I thank God I can not only with patience bear this as other indignities but with Charity forgive them The integrity of My intentions is not jealous of any injury My expressions can do them for although the confidence of privacy may admit greater freedom in writing such Letters which may be liable to envious exceptions yet the Innocency of My chief purposes cannot be so obtained or mis-interpreted by them as not to let all men seâ— that I wish nothing more then an happy composure of differences with Justice and Honour not more to My own then My peoples content who have any sparks of Love or Loyalty left in them who by those My Letters may be convinced that I can both mind and act My own and My Kingdomes Affaires so as becomes a Prince which Mine Enemies have alwayes been very loath should be belâ—eved of me as if I were wholly confined to the Dictates and Directions of others whom they please to brand with the names of Evill Counsellours It s probable some men will now look upon me as my own Counsellour and having none else to quarrell with under that notion they will hereafter confine theâ—r anger to my self Although I know they are very unwilling I should enjoy the liberty of my own Thoughts or follow the light of my own Conscience which they labour to bring into an absolute captivity to themselves not allowing me to think their Counsels to be other then good for me which have so long maintained a War against Me. The Victory they obtained that day when my Letters became their prize had been enough to have satiated the most ambitious thirst of popular glory among the Vulgar with whom prosperity gaines the greatest esteem and applause as adversity exposeth to their greatest slighting and dis-respect As if good fortune were alwayes the shadow of Vertue and Justice and did not oftner attend vitious and injurious actions as to this world But I see no secular advantages seeme sufficient to that cause which began with Tumults and depends chiefty upon the reputation with the vulgar They think no Victories so effectuall to their designes as those that most rout and waste my Credit with my People in whose hearts they seek by all meanes to smother and extinguish all sparks of Love Respect and Loyalty to Me that they may never kindle again so as to recover Mine the Lawes and the Kingdomes Liberties which some men seek to overthrow The taking away of my Credit is but a necessary preparation to the taking away of my Life and my Kingdomes First I must seem neither fit to Live nor worthy to Reign By exquisite methods of cunning and cruelty I must be compelled first to follow the Funeralls of my Honour and then be destroyed But I know Gods un-erring and impartiall Justice can and will over-rule the most perverse wills and designes of men He is able and I hope will turn even the worst of mine Enemies thoughts and actions to my good Nor doe I think that by the surprize of my Letters I have lost any more then so many papers How much they have lost of that reputation for Civility and Humanity which ought to be pay'd to all men and most becomes such as pretend to Religion besides that of respect and Honour which they owe to their KING present and after-times will judge And I cannot think that their owne consciences are so stupid as not to inflict upon them some secret impressions of that shame and dishonour which attends all unworthy actions have they never so much of publique flattery and popular countenance I am sure they can never expect the divine approbation of such indecent actions if they doe but remember how God blest the modest respect and filiall tendernesse which Noah's Sonnes bare to their Father nor did his open infirmity justifie Chams impudency or exempt him from that curse of being Servant of Servants which curse must needs be on them who seek by dishonourable actions to please the Vulgar and confirme by ignoble acts their dependance upon the People Nor can their malitious intentions be ever either excusable or prosperous who thought by this means to expose Me to the highest reproach and contempt of My People forgetting that duty of modest concealment which they owed to the Father of their Country in case they had discovered any reall uncomelinesse which I thank God they did not who can and I believe hath made Me more respected in the hearts of many as he did David to whom they thought by publishing My private Letters to have rendred Me as a Vile Person not fit to be trusted or considered under any Notion of Majesty But thou O Lord whose wise and all-disposing providence ordereth the greatest contingences of humane affaires make me to see the constancy of thy mercies to me in the greatest advantages thou seemest to give the malice of my Enemies against me As thou didst blast the counsel of Achitophel turning it to Davids good and his owne ruine so canst thou defeat their designe who intended by publishing my private Letters nothing else but to render me more odious and contemptible to My People I must first appeale to thy Omniscience who canst witnesse with my integrity how unjust and false those scandalous misconstructions are which my enemies endeavour by those Papers of mine to represent to the world Make the evill they imagined and displeasure they intended thereby against me so to returne on their owne heads that they may be ashamed and covered with their owne confusion as with a Cloake Thou seest how mine Enemies use all meanes to cloud mine Honour to pervert my purposes and to slander the footsteps of thine Anoynted But give me an heart content to be dishonoured for thy sake and thy Churches good Fix in me a purpose to honour thee and then I know thou wilt honour me either by restoring to me the enjoyment of that Power and Majesty which thou hast suffered some men to seek to deprive me of or by bestowing on me that crowne of Christian patience which knows how to serve thee in honour or dishonour in good report or evill Thou O Lord art the fountaine of goodnesse and honour thou art clothed with excellent Majesty make me to partake of thy excellency for wisdome justice and mercy and I shall not want that degree of Honour and Majesty which becomes the Place in which thou hast set Me who art the lifter up of My head and My salvation Lord by thy Grace lead Me to thy Glory which is both true and eternall 22. Vpon His Majesties leaving Oxford and going to the Scots ALthough God hath given Mee three Kingdomes
yet in these He hath not now left Me any place where I may with Safety Honour rest my Head Shewing me that himself is the safest Refuge and the strongest Tower of defence in which I may put my Trust. In these extremities I look not to man so much as to God He will have it thus that I may wholly cast my self and my now distressed affaires upon his mercy who hath both hearts and hands of all men in his dispose What Providence denies to Force it may grant to Prudence Necessity is now my Counsellour and commands me to study my safety by a disguised withdrawing from my chiefest strength and adventuring upon their Loyalty who first began my Troubles Happily God may make them a means honourably to compose them This my confidence of Them may dis-arme and overcome them my rendring my Person to Them may engage their affections to me who have oft professed They fought not against Me but for Me. I must now resolve the riddle of their Loyalty and give them opportunity to let the world see they meane not what they doe but what they say Yet must God be My chiefest Guard and My Conscience both My Counsellour and My Comforter Though I put My Body into their hands yet I shall reserve My Soule to God and My selfe nor shall any necessities compel Me to desert Mine Honour or swerve from My Judgment What they sought to take by force shall now be given them in such a way of unusuall confidence of them as may make them ashamed not to be really such as they ought and professed to be God sees it not enough to desert Me of all Military power to defend My self but to put Me upon using their power who seem to fight against Me yet ought in duty to defend Me. So various are all humame affaires and so neceâ—sitous may the state of Princes be that their greatest danger may be in their supposed safety and their safety in their supposed danger I must now leave those that have Adhered to Me and apply to those that have Opposed Me this method of Peace may be more prosperous than that of Warre both to stop the effusion of bloud and to close those wounds already made and in it I am no lesse solicitous for My Friends safety than Mine owne chusing to venture My selfe upon further hazards rather than expose their resolute Loyalty to all extremities It is some skill in play to know when a game is lost better fairly to goe over than to contest in vaine I must now study to re-inforce My judgement and fortifie My mind with Reason and Religion that I may not seem to offer up My Souls liberty or make My Conscience their Captive who ought at first to have used Arguments not Armes to have perswaded My consent to their new demands I thank God no successe darkens or disguises Truth to me and I shall no lesse conforme my words to my inward dictates now than if they had been as the words of a KING ought to be among loyall Subjects full of power Reason is the divinest power I shall never think my self weakned while I may make full and free use of that No eclypse of outward fortune shall rob me of that light what God hath denied of outward strength his grace I hope will supply with inward resolutions not morosity to deny what is fit to be granted but not to grant any thing which Reason and Religion bids me deny I shall never think my self lesse than my self while I am able thus to preserve the Integrity of my Conscience the onely Jewell now left me which is worth keeping O thou Soveraigne of our Soules the onely Commander of our Consciences though I know not what to doe yet mine eyes are toward thee To the protection of thy mercy I still commend my selfe As thou hast preserved me in the day of Battaile so thou canst still shew me thy strength in my weaknesse Be thou unto me in my darkest night a pillar of fire to enlighten and direct me in the day of my hottest affliction be also a pillar of cloud to overshadow and protect me be to me both a Sun and a Shield Thou knowest that it is not any perversnesse of will but just perswasions of Honour Reason and Religion which have made me thus farre to hazard my Person Peace and Safety against those that by force have sought to wrest them from Mee Suffer not my just resolutions to abate with my outward Forces let a good Conscience alwaies accompany Me in My solitude and desertions Suffer me not to betray the powers of Reason and that fortresse of My Soule which I am intrusted to keep for thee Lead Me in the paths of thy righteousnesse and shew me thy salvation Make my waies to please thee and then thou wilt make Mine Enemies to be at peace with Me. 23. Vpon the Scots delivering the KING to the English and His Captivity at Holmeby YEt may I justifie those Scots to all the world in this that they have not deceived me for I never trusted to them further than to men if I am sold by them I am onely sorry they should doe it and that my price should be so much above my Saviours These are but further Essays which God will have me make of mans uncertainty the more to fix me on himself who never faileth them that trust in him Though the Reeds of Aegypt break under the hand of him that leans on them yet the Rock of Israel will be an everlasting stay and defence Gods providence commands me to retire from all to himself that in him I may enjoy my self which I lose while I let out my hopes to others The solitude and captivity to which I am now reduced gives me leisure â—nough to study the worlds vanity and inconstancy God sees 't is fit to deprive me of Wife Children Army Friends and Freedome that I may be wholly his who alone is all I care not much to be reckoned among the Unfortunate if I be not in the black List of irreligious and sacrilegious Princesâ— No Restraint shall ensnare my Soule in sin nor gaine that of me which may make my Enemies more insolent my Friends ashamed or my Name accursed They have no great cause to triumph that they have got my Person into their power since my Soule is still my owne nor shall they ever gaine my Consent against my Conscience What they call obstinacy I know God accounts honest constancy from which Reason and Religion as well as Honour forbid me to recede 'T is evident now that it was not Evil Counsellours with me but a good Conscience in me which hath been fought against nor did they ever intend to bring me to my Parliament till they had brought my mind to their obedience Should I grant what some men desire I should be such as they wish me not more a King and farre lesse both Man and Christian. What Tumults and Armies could not
obtaine neither shall Restraint which though it have as little of safety to a Prince yet it hath not more of danger The feare of men shall never be my snare nor shall the love of any liberty entangle my soule Better others betray me than my self and that the price of my liberty should be my Conscience the greatest injuries my Enemies seek to inflict upon me cannot be without my owne consent While I can deny with Reason I shall defeat the greatest impressions of their malice who neither know how to use worthily what I have already granted nor what to require more of me but this That I would seem willing to help them to destroy My self Mine Although they should destroy me yet they shall have no cause to despise me Neither liberty nor life are so deare to me as the peace of my Conscience the Honour of my Crownes and the welfare of my People which my Word may injure more than any Warre can doe while I gratifie a few to oppresse all The Lawes will by Gods blessing revive with the love and Loyalty of my Subjects if I bury them not by my Consent and cover them in that grave of dishonour and injustice which some mens violence hath digged for them If my Captivity or death must be the price of their redemption I grâ—dge not to pay it No condition can make a King miserable which carries not with it his Souls his Peoples and Posterities thraldome After-times may see what the blindnesse of this Age will not and God may at length shew my Subjects that I chuse rather to suffer for them than with them happily I might redeem my selfe to some shew of liberty if I would consent to enslave them I had rather hazard the ruine of one King than to confirme many Tyrants over them from whom I pray God deliver them whatever becomes of Me whose solitude hath not left Me alone For thou O God infinitely good and great art with Me whose presence is better than life and whose service is perfect freedome Owne Me for thy Servant and I shall never have cause to complaine for want of that liberty which becomes a Man a Christian and a King Blesse Me still with Reason as a Man with Religion as a Christian and with Coâ—stancy in Iustice as a King Though thou sufferest Me to be stript of all outward ornaments yet preserve Me ever in those enjoyments wherein I may enjoy thy selfe and which cannot be taken from Me against my will Let no fire of affliction boyle â—ver My passion to any impatience or sordid feares There be many say of Me There is no help for Me doe thou lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon Me and I shall neither want safety liberty nor Majesty Give Me that measure of patience and Constâ—ncy which my condition now requires My strength is scattered My expectation froâ— Men defeated My Person restrained O be not thou farre from Me lest My Enemies prevaile too much against Me. I am become a wonder and a scorne to many O be thou my Helper and Defender Shew some token upon me for good that they that hate me may be ashamed because thou Lord hast holpen and comforted me establish me with thy free Spirit that I may do and suffer thy will as thou wouldst have me Be mercifull to me O Lord for my Soule trusteth in thee yea and in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge untill these calamities be overpast Arise to deliver me make no long â—arrying O my God Though thou killest me yet will I trust in thy mercy and my Saviour merit I know that my Redeemer liveth though thou leadest me through the vayl and shadow of death yet shall I feare none ill 24. Vpon their denying His Majesty the Attendance of His Chaplaines WHen Providence was pleased to deprive Me of all other civill comforts and secular attendants I thought the absence of them all might best be supplyed by the attendance of some of My Chaplaines whom for their Function I reverence and for their Fidelity I have cause to love By their learning piety and prayers I hoped to be either better enabled to sustaine the want of all other enjoyments or better fitted for the recovery and use of them in Gods good time so reaping by their pious help a spirituall harvest of grace amidst the thornes and after the plowings of temporall crosses The truth is I never needed or desired more the service and assistance of men judiciously pious and soberly devout The solitude they have confined Me unto adds the Wildernesse to my temptations For the company they obtrude upon Me is more sad than any solitude can be If I had asked My Revenues My Power of the Militia or any one of My Kingdomes it had been no wonder to have been denyed in those things where the evill policy of men forbids all just restitution lest they should confesse an injurious usurpation But to deny Me the Ghostly comfort of My Chaplaines seemes a greater rigour and barbarity then is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom though the Justice of the Law deprive of worldly comforts yet the mercy of Religion allows them the benefit of their Clergy as not ayming at once to destroy their Bodies and to damne their Soules But My Agony must not be relieved with the presence of any one good Angell for such I account a Learâ—ed Godly and discreet Divine and such I would have all Mine to be They that envy My being a King are loath I should be a Christian while they seek to deprive Me of all things else They are afraid I should save my Soul Other sense Charity it self can hardly pick out of those many harsh Repulses I received as to that Request so often made for the attendance of some of My Chaplaines I have sometime thought the Unchristiannesse of those denialls might arise from a displeasure some men had to see me prefer my own Divines before their Ministers whom though I respect for that worth and piety which may be in them yet I cannot thinke them so proper for any present comforters or Physitians Who have some of them at least had so great an influence in occasioning these calamities and inflicting these wounds upon Me. Nor are the soberest of them so apt for that devotionall complyance and juncture of hearts which I desire to bear in those holy Offices to be performed with Me and for Me since their judgements standing at a distance from me or in jealousie of me or in opposition against me their Spirits cannot so harmoniously accord with mine or mine with theirs either in Prayer or other holy duties as is meet and most comfortable whose golden Rule and bond of Perfection consists in that of mutuall Love and Charity Some remedies are worse then the diseasâ— and some comforters more miserable then misery it self when like Iobs friends they seek not to fortifie ones mind
of all have excited to crucifie Me. But thou O Lord canst and wilt as thou didst My Redeemer both exalt and perfect Me by My sufferings which have moâ—e in them of thy mercy than of mans cruelty or thy owne justice 27. To the Prince of VVales SOn if these Papers with some others wherein I have set down the private reflections of My Conscience and My most impartiall thoughts touching the chiefe passages which have been most remarkable or disputed in My late troubles come to your hands to whom they are chiefly designed they may be so far usefull to you as to state your judgement aright in what hath passed whereof a pious is the best use can be made and they may also give you some directions how to remedy the present distempers and prevent if God will the lâ—ke for time to come It is some kind of deceiving and lessening the injury of My long restraint when I find My leisure and solitude have produced something worthy of My self and usefull to you That neither you nor any other may hereafter measure My Cause by the Successe nor My Judgment of things by My misfortunes which I count the greater by farre because they have so farre lighted upon you and some others whom I have most cause to love as well as My self and of whose unmerited sufferings I have a greater sense then of Mine own But this advantage of wisedome you have above most Princes that you have begun and now spent some yeares of discretion in the experience of troubles and exercise of patience wherein Piety and all Vertues both Morall and Politicall are commonly better planted to a thriving as trees set in winter then in the warmth and serenity of times or amidst those delights which usually attend Princes Courts in times of peace and plenty which are prone either to root up all plants of true Vertue and Honour or to be contented only with some leaves and withering formalities of them without any reall fruits such as tend to the Publick good for which Princes should alwayes remember they are born and by providence desigâ—ed The evidence of which different education the holy Writ affords us in the contemplation of David and Rehoboam The one prepared by many afflictions for a flourishing Kingdom the other softned by the unparalel'd prosperity of Solomons Court and so corrupted to the great diminution both for Peace Honour and Kingdome by those flatteries which are as unseparable from prosperous Princes as Flies are from fruit in summer whom adversity like cold weather drives away I had rather you should be Charles le Bow then le Grand good then great I hope God hath designed you to be both having so early put you into that exercise of his Graces and gifts bestowed upon you which may best weed out all vicious inclinations and dispose you to those Princely endowments and employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God shall place you With God I would have you begin and end who is King of Kings the Soveraign disposer of the Kingdomes of the world who pulleth downe one and setteth up another The best Government and highest Soveraignty you can attain to is to be subject to him that the Scepter of his Word and Spirit may rule in your heart The true glory of Princes consists in advancing Gods Glory in the maintenance of true Religion and the Churches good Also in the dispensation of civill Power with Justice and Honour to the publick Peace Piety will make you prosperous at least it will keep you from being miserable nor is he much a loser that loseth all yet saveth his owne soule at last To which Center of true Happinesse God I trust hath and will graciously direct all these black lines of Affliction which he hath been pleased to draw on me and by which he hath I hope drawn me nearer to himself You have already tasted of that cup whereof I have liberally drank which I look upon as Gods Physick having that in healthfulnesse which it wants in pleasure Above all I would have you as I hope you are already well-grounded and setled in your Religion The best profession of which I have ever esteemed that of the Church of England in which you have been educated yet I would have your own Judgement and Reason now seal to that sacred bond which education hath written that it may be judiciously your own Religion and not other mens custome or tradition which you professe In this I charge you to persevere as comming nearest to Gods Word for Doctrine and to the primitive examples for Government with some little amendment which I have other where expressed and often offered though in vain Your fixation in matters of Religion will not be not more necessary for your soules then your Kingdomes peace when God shall bring you to them For I have observed that the Devill of Rebellion doth commonly turn hâ—mself into an Angell of Reformation and the old Serpent can pretend new Lights When some mens Consciences accuse them for Sedition and Faction they stop its mouth with the name and noise of Religion when Piety pleads for peace and patience they cry out Zeale So that unlesse in this point You be well setled you shall never want temptations to destroy you and yours under pretensions of reforming matters of Religion for that seemes even to worst men as the best and most auspicious beginning of their worst designes Where besides the Novelty which is taking enough with the Vulgar every one hath an affectation by seeming forward to an outward Reformation of Religion to be thought zealous hoping to cover those irreligious deformities whereto they are conscious by aseverity of censuring other mens opinions or actions Take heed of abetting any Factions or applying to any publick Discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your Judgement and the Church well setled your partiall adhering as head to any one side gaines you not so great advantages in some mens hearts who are prone to be of their Kings Religion as it losâ—th you in others who think themselves and their profession first despised then persecuted by you Take such a course as may either w th calmnes charity quite remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or so order affaires in point of Power that you shal not need to fear or flatter any Faction For if ever you stand in need of them or must stand to their courtesie you are undone The Serpent will devour the Dove you may never expect lesse of loyalty justice or humanity than from those who engage into religious Rebellion Their interest is alwaies made Gods under the colours of Piety ambitious policies march not onely with greatest security but applause as to the populacy you may heare from them Iacob's voice but you shall feele they have Esau's hands Nothing seemed lesse considerable than the Presbyterian Faction in England for many